OUAGADOUGOU, 6 August 2009 (IRIN): One of nature’s most nutrient-packed foods, breast milk, is thrown out by mothers in parts of West Africa who do not see the value of colostrum – the thick, yellow form of breast milk that appears in the earliest days after delivery – calling it dirty, worthless and not recognizing it as milk.
Ami Ouedraogo, 22, a mother in the northwest Burkina Faso village of Zincko showed IRIN what she did with the “dirty milk” following her pregnancy by squeezing her breast. – It [colostrum] was dirty and I needed to get rid of it in order to be able to feed my daughter correctly, said the two-time mother, who imitated tossing liquid to the ground.
Her nine-month-old daughter, Ami, was being treated for malnutrition at a Red Cross nutrition clinic in Zincko.
World Health Organization (WHO) recommends mothers begin breastfeeding within the first hour of a child’s life in order to boost both the child’s and mother’s chances of survival: early breastfeeding produces a hormone that helps the mother’s uterus stop bleeding and colostrum packs high concentrations of antibodies and nutrients for the child, WHO nutrition department’s Carmen Casanovas told IRIN.
UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported on a 2007 medical study that found breastfeeding within the first hour can reduce newborn deaths by more than 20 per cent.
More than one-third of surveyed mothers in Burkina Faso, 46 per cent in Mali, 48 per cent in Niger and 23 per cent in Senegal reported breastfeeding within one hour of giving birth, according to the countries’ most recent demographic and health surveys, while 60 per cent of women reported the same in a 2008 rapid nutrition assessment in Mauritania.
But national averages may be skewed if communities that do not normally breastfeed within the first hour are not included in the sample, said WHO’s Casanovas. Respondents included women who gave birth within the past five years.
Casanovas added that a woman’s delivery experience may affect her perception of time. – If she had a good experience, she may think very little time passed before she breastfed, whereas someone else who had a painful delivery will think a long time lapsed before she produced breast milk. In both cases, their perceptions of time may be inaccurate, said the doctor.
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